Seven's streets ahead

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As hotly contested as Greek gold, Monday night's battle of the new backdrops was won by ... Channel Seven.

Its news service beat Channel Nine's by 2000 viewers in Sydney - with 400,915 sets of eyeballs.

Unlike a 400-metre relay or the high jump, this event will go on and on, played out every night at 6pm.

The race started on Monday night, when Seven and Nine unveiled their new news backdrops. At Seven, Ian Ross read the news from Martin Place; at Nine, Jim Waley sat with his back to views of Sydney Harbour and the city.

In other capitals, the last thing viewers wish to see is the camera panning lovingly over the Sydney skyline, so a more generic studio backdrop was retained.

Sticking with the old look didn't necessarily hurt ratings.

Nine News was the second most watched show in capital cities on Monday night, with 1,549,238 viewers, beating the Olympic closing ceremony and Australian Idol.

But the closing ceremony was the most watched show in Sydney on Monday night, with 498,870 viewers. Nationwide, a peak of 2.22 million Australians tuned in to watch the ceremony.

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Although not outrating the Sydney Olympics, 12.01 million Australians watched the Athens Games over the past 17 days - with an average prime-time audience of 1.67 million people.

A Seven spokesman said the Australian television audience for the Athens Games was 10 per cent more than for the Atlanta Games in 1996 and 14 per cent more than for the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Up against the big guns, a new show about religion could be expected to rate modestly - but John Safran Versus God on SBS pulled in 380,000 viewers in mainland capital cities.

"The ratings show that the program was popular with young men," an SBS spokeswoman said.